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Bad News: LMII is closing down.....

Bruce Johnson

Bruce Johnson

Gold Supporting Member
Commercial User
Feb 4, 2011
16,067
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Fillmore, CA
www.xstrange.com
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Professional Luthier
#1
I don't know how many of you got the e-mail today, but Luthier's Mercantile has announced that they are closing down, going out of business, selling off all their inventory. Apparently the owners are retiring, and were unable to sell the company.

Sad news for us small Luthiers. I've been completely dependent on them for all my ebony fingerboards for 27 years. I'm kind of stunned. I assumed that they would be around forever, or at least for the rest of my working years.

We need to get our sources and resources together and figure out who else will be a reliable source.
 
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#10
Brad_Pearson said:
DAMN!

Having them slot and radius fretboards for me was such a timesaver. This sucks. Hopefully another supplier will start offering custom scale lengths and radius' (LMII was so flexible and detailed).
Click to expand...

My buddy Jeremy Kirsch (Freekmagnet) and I talked for a while this afternoon about whether we should go into offering fingerboard radiusing and slotting as a service to other small Luthiers. Over the years, I've done many individual fingerboards for Luthiers I know. I already have the special machines. I could do a few upgrades to the fixtures to make them more efficient at holding blank fingerboards. And bring in Jeremy to help with the labor of doing the jobs. We could offer any scale length, any radius, even fanned frets. Mostly working by mail order. And our prices would be in the range of what LMI has been charging.

We haven't decided for sure, but agreed that it could work as a long term side business for us.
 
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#12
Bruce Johnson said:
My buddy Jeremy Kirsch (Freekmagnet) and I talked for a while this afternoon about whether we should go into offering fingerboard radiusing and slotting as a service to other small Luthiers. Over the years, I've done many individual fingerboards for Luthiers I know. I already have the special machines. I could do a few upgrades to the fixtures to make them more efficient at holding blank fingerboards. And bring in Jeremy to help with the labor of doing the jobs. We could offer any scale length, any radius, even fanned frets. Mostly working by mail order. And our prices would be in the range of what LMI has been charging.

We haven't decided for sure, but agreed that it could work as a long term side business for us.
Click to expand...

I would absolutely send some business your way if you guys pursue this. I’ve had LMI slot my boards since I started as they were also a main supplier of Pau Ferro, Rosewood, Mac Ebony/Ebony and Ovangkol. Truly a sad day to see these legends closing up shop
 
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#15
:(

I will happily throw money at anyone else who can supply
  • Slotted fretboards in lots of woods at any scale length
  • Nice thin truss rods like theirs
  • Abalone side dots
 
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#18
I would gladly buy slotted boards from the Bruce/Freekmagnet Consortium if you decide to do it. I’ve sent three Bubinga boards I couldn’t find elsewhere, and they didn’t carry, to be radiused and fret slotted, both jobs I either haven’t learned to do, or would rather not. Sad to hear about LMI, I’ve also bought a few of their trussrods.
 
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